Silver Medal: Nautilus Book Awards, Fiction Gold Medal: Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Multicultural Fiction Bronze Medal: Living Now Book Awards, Inspirational Fiction Shortlist: The International Rubery Book Award, Fiction Finalist: INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award, Historical Fiction Shortlist: Santa Fe Writers Project, Fiction Finalist: Pen/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction A woman can have a career and family, but which comes first? A starving panda eats a hen in order to nurse her cub in the dead of winter--there begins the perilous adventure of Gu Bao, a girl who grows up under the Chinese government's one-child policy. Bao falls in love with a handsome soldier during the tumultuous Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The demonstrations transfix her fellow students and kill one of her friends. Bao finds herself pregnant and faces the end of her academic career. Her grieving parents arrange for a secret abortion and ship her off to her grandparents' house in the remote countryside where she was raised.  Bao searches for her inner strength while exploring the evocative Sichuan mountain landscape. She befriends a panda mother caught in a poacher's snare, and an expectant young mother hiding from villainous one-child policy enforcers bent on giving compulsory abortions. All struggle against society to preserve the treasure of their little ones. Can Bao save a rural family from destruction, and help a giant panda along the way? She devises a daring plan that changes the lives of everyone around her. A deeply moving story of family, passion, and courage, Living Treasures is both a gripping page-turner and an incisive social critique, portraying a young woman's quest for romance and justice in a rigid society. Bao, a law student, aspires to have both a career and family, but which comes first? A baby rarely arrives at a convenient time. The decision about the woman's body is not an easy choice but rather a compromise that comes with a dear price. Bao's struggle encapsulates many women's journeys through life, as they experience the triumphs, suffer the heartbreaks, and learn to live with the consequences. Gr 10 Up—Eighteen-year-old Gu Bao is a law student at Nanjing University in the summer of 1989, during the Tiananmen Square protests and the ensuing political unrest. Despite the school's strict rules against dating and sex, Bao and her boyfriend Tong decide to sleep together. Bao becomes pregnant and is promptly taken to her grandparents' remote village for an abortion. While seeking solace in the woods to mourn the loss of her unborn "Soybean," Bao befriends a woman named Orchid who, in defiance of the country's one-child policy, is hiding until she can give birth to her second baby. Bao forms a relationship with Orchid and her family, becoming deeply involved in working to ensure the safety of the unborn child. The use of metaphor and symbolism is strong throughout the story, with many images of babies, mothers, and the visceral realities of life and survival. The theme of women's bodies not always being their own is prominent. The richly detailed expository descriptions tend to overpower the stilted dialogue, which makes the tone feel uneven and the characters difficult to become invested in. The slow pace and specific cultural setting may make this a hard sell for teen readers. For where William Bell's Forbidden City (Seal, 1990) is still popular.—Whitney LeBlanc, Staten Island Academy, NY San Jose Mercury News : "Gu Bao negotiates the shifting landscape of a country still struggling toward modernity, as China's education system, family planning policies and the deaths of her fellow students. . . push her to desperate measures. The story moves from city life to the rural home of Bao's grandparents, acquiring an epic feel in a compact length." San Francisco Book Review : "Huang's winning novel is more than another work of historical fiction. Living Treasures is endearing, extraordinarily moving, and its timely message about life makes it a must read for young and old readers alike." Midwest Book Review : " Living Treasures is nothing short of spectacular; especially for readers who want a story steeped in Chinese culture, tradition, and politics but cemented by a powerful young woman who emerges as a savior to others." Kirkus Reviews : "Huang does an admirable job balancing Bao's individual story against the canvas of China's evolution using crisply drawn characters who reveal their layers as the story progresses. A knotty, engaging novel of China's recent history." Asian American Literature Fans : "The perils of Chinese motherhood in all of its contemporary manifestations." Foreword Reviews : " Living Treasures expands into a deeply human and sympathetic portrait of people living as best they can in an imperfect society." Booklist : "Huang's measured yet evocative novel heightens Bao's journey from timid student to defiant adversary in the midst of personal an